'No Indication' Putin Willing To Negotiate At All, White House Says

The White House on Wednesday said it sees 'no indication' of Russia's Vladimir Putin being willing to negotiate at all, "in fact, quite the opposite," as John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Speaking at a briefing organized by the State Department's Washington Foreign Press Center, Kirby responded to TURAN's questions of the war, of the need for U.S. jets to secure Ukraine's victory, and whether there was any sign at all of Putin coming back to the table.

"Everything we see out of the Kremlin tells us that Mr. Putin wants to continue to fight this war," Kirby said, adding immediately, "which is why we’re going to do what we can – not just the U.S. but nations around the world – to support Ukraine and their ability to succeed on the battlefield."

The Western support has two targets: military and financial — making sure that Ukraine can still govern itself, that they have the resources to keep paying government employees and keep hospitals open and schools open, Kirby explained.

Washington recently announced another package that included longer-range capability for HIMARS, as well as artillery ammunition, small arms and ammunition, and more vehicles.  "We’re going to continue to do that going forward," Kirby said, adding that Ukrainians could be "hardly blamed" for wanting more, given what they’re facing every day.

"We understand that, and that’s why we’re in constant communication with [Ukrainians], almost every day, about what the capabilities are, what the needs on the battlefield are.  And we’ve evolved that over time," he said.

Now as the Ukrainians prepare for what will likely be more fighting in the spring when the weather improves, Kyiv has "identified that they need to get better at something called combined arms maneuver," according to Kirby.

"And that’s why the Department of Defense is doing battalion-level training outside of Ukraine, so that they can get better at this combined arms maneuver and those kinds of operations, he explained.

He went on to conclude, "every nation has to decide for itself what it’s willing to provide Ukraine and under what circumstances because every nation has their own national security interest to think about, and their own alliances to measure up to. So they’re all sovereign decisions.  We respect that. "

Alex Raufoglu

Washuington D.C.